The Admission Committee for Professional Courses (ACPC) on Wednesday announced that nearly 45000 PINs for admissions in engineering courses has been sold for 67000 seats in the state. A total of 41184 students had registered for the admissions in engineering courses this year.
As far as pharmacy is concerned, a total of 19348 PINs were sold till date as against 16810 registrations for only 5000 seats.
With a dip in results for class 12 science stream, vacancy in engineering courses was expected. Last year, there were 33,000 vacant seats, while this year there is a possibility of another 5,000 going vacant. This will mean that around 57% of the seats will remain vacant.
A drop of 64.5% was observed in schools that recorded 100% results. While there were 118 schools last year which had recorded 100% results, the number this year has fallen to just 42. As far as overall pass percentage is concerned, nearly 9% dip has been witnessed with 72.99% this year as against 81.89% last year. The results that were ...

Dharmesh Shah, 49, a civil construction businessman, shot his wife Ami, 48, and their two daughters Heli, 24, and Diksha, 19, with his licensed gun in his apartment in Ratnam Flats, located in Vastrapur area on Tuesday around 7 am.
Following the incident, Shah called his engineer, identified as Nilesh Prajapati, and said that he had killed his wife and two daughters and was going to shoot himself. Prajapati connected the call to Shah's younger brother Viren who reached Shah's house immediately.
After having the phone conversation, Shah informed the Ahmedabad Police control room and confessed to the murders.
Inspector MM Jadeja of Vastrapur Police Station said, "Shah was going to surrender himself by coming to the police station, but he was asked to stay at his house. A police team reached the spot to arrest him."
During the investigation it was revealed that Shah and his family were one of the first families to start living in Ratnam tower and that they had been staying there for the past 18 years. Shah, ...

The Gujarat government has decided to screen tourists returning from Kerala and other states in view of the Nipah virus scare in the southern state.
The government will set up a medical check up team in all major stations of Gujarat, including Kalupur station in Ahmedabad city. It is not yet known if the teams will be set up at airports or not.
"The team will screen visitors who have visited Kerala and other southern states and will look for those who exhibit symptoms of the disease," said Kishore Kannanai, Minister of State for health.
The state has roped in tour operators in the city and across Gujarat to get details about tourists who have visited Kerala and to know details of their return. Sources said that following the reports of outbreak of the virus in the southern state, mostly in rural areas, several tourists from the state have either cut their visit short or have cancelled it entirely..
It should be noted that Kerala has so far recorded 10 deaths due to the virus. The last time the government ...

A press conference was conducted on Tuesday by KNL Rao (JCP, Sector 1), JK Bhatt (JCP, Crime Branch) and Neerja Gotru (JCP, Traffic), at the Ahmedabad Crime Branch office in Gaikwad Haveli, about a programme related to World No Tobacco Day on May 31.
The police said they are going to organise an awareness programme in the city on May 31 with students of Ahmedabad Dental College regarding the perils of consuming tobacco.
The dental students undertook a survey, in which around 8,000 students of different colleges and schools were asked whether they consume tobacco. As per the survey, around 44 per cent of students consume tobacco and it was revealed that there are higher number of consumers among arts and commerce students as compared to those in science streams. It was also revealed that many female students smoke to try and lose weight.
The police have been taking action against people smoking or consuming tobacco in public by imposing fines. As per a police officer, in 2018, around 18,017 cases have ...

With an increase of 72% revenue, Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel International airport has recorded an increase of over 100% in surplus in a span of five years.
As per numbers shared by airport officials, in 2013-14, the revenue was Rs 217.92 crores which shot up to Rs 375.67 crores in 2017-18. As far as surplus is concerned, the difference was of nearly 62 crores increase in a span of five years.
The airport officials credit a massive increase in passenger movements and aviation traffic from Gujarat. The city airport, for many years, was at the receiving end of criticism over basic facilities like toilets as well as the quality of seats.
In 2016, the Ahmedabad chapter of Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) had taken up the issue of drafting their concerns to the then airport director. The members had then said, "A number of issues will continue to plague Ahmedabad airport due to privatisation of some of the airports. Passengers are becoming increasingly discerning. They are enjoying all the facilities ...

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the vacation bench of the Gujarat High Court on Monday challenged the move by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to allow 65 councillors and 8 MLAs the use of various community halls, party plots and such without due process and in violation of the rules.
It is alleged that the standing committee of the AMC through a one-line resolution allowed this to happen even though this was in violation of the normal process of booking of municipal premises.
It has further alleged that the municipal premises so booked in the name of councillors for a particular function was, in fact, being used by someone else. The petition by one Khemchand Rajaram Koshti, a lawyer also alleged that the resolution ensured that all such municipal premises were booked for the year 2018 as well as 2019. The petition has called the move by the standing committee of AMC as unreasonable and abuse of power and has sought from the court that the resolution by quashed.
The court has issued a ...

Disappointed with the pace at which the city's heritage tag project is moving, stakeholders associated with the project now want the state to push for speedy planning and implementation. Heritage entrepreneur and convenor of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Abhay Mangaldas recently wrote to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani apprising him about the situation on the ground in reference to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) report.
On July 8, 2017, UNESCO declared the walled city of Ahmedabad a World Heritage City. It took two decades of efforts to achieve the new status as Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had set up Heritage Cell in 1996 to preserve heritage sites and restore those which were damaged. Prior to that in 1984, Ford Foundation had instituted a project to conserve city's heritage structures in the walled city.
While the title brought a lot of honour to the city and scope to attract more tourists, nearly ten months later, experts are now ...

Taking a project aimed at spreading menstrual hygiene in Zainabad to the next level, grade 1 girls of Mahatma Gandhi International School (MGIS) in Ahmedabad have reached out to the salt pan workers, convincing them to use sanitary pads. The project not only aimed at mere interactions but the students also provided them pads for few months, to make the initiative more sustainable.
While raising funds to buy 4200 pads was a challenge, students organized a fund raising concert, performed and raised Rs 18000 to buy pads. Every year, students have to invest 150 hours in Community, Activity and Service (CAS) project. Speaking about her project, Rukmini Chariar, grade 11 student of MGIS said, "The salt pan workers in Zainabad have a huge lack of resources. They have used things like ash hay and cloth as opposed to pads. When we came to know about the situation, we really felt the need to help them. Another reason is that our senior batch has done a similar project last year and we wanted to continue giving the ...

Data released by the state government has shown a significant drop in the number of applications received from students under the special category for admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) Act this year. Applications received under RTE from special students are 457 as against 1,432 last year.
The report further reveals an alarming drop in the number of special students who received admissions this year. While 13 applications were received from children with HIV and four had made it to the final admission list last year, 21 applications have been received in the same category this year and only one student has secured admission.
The state government had last year extended its reach to students belonging to different categories with an aim of inclusive education.The students included orphans, HIV affected children, children of migrating labourers, mentally challenged, children with special needs, etc. However, after round one of admissions, nearly 30,000 seats remained vacant and nearly 80,000 ...

In relation to the multi-crore bitcoin case, CID crime officials on Friday detained Nikunj Joshi and Pathak School principal Naresh Bhatt, nephews of Shailesh Bhatt, the Surat-based builder who was kidnapped and 176 were extorted from him allegedly by Nalin Kotadiya.
Kotadiya had alleged that Bhatt kidnapped two bitcoin investors — Dhaval Malavani and Piyush Savaliya on 1 February and had allegedly extorted 2,300 bitcoins from them. Several police officials, including the Amreli SP, LCB Inspector and Lawyer were arrested in the case. Kotadiya, former MLA from Dhari, is also absconding in the case.
CID officials already had inputs and an investigation was underway regarding Bhatt's bitcoin sources.
The officials were playing low in the case in order to get on the top of the bitcoin chain and continued investigating the extortion of 176 bitcoins.
Nikunj and Nilesh were detained from Rajkot by the CID on Friday and were taken to Ahmedabad for questioning. It is suspected that the two might reveal some ...

Owing to 9% dip in Class 12 Science state board results, the Science colleges across Gujarat are expecting a huge rush for admissions to various courses. Gujarat University, which began admissions for BSc courses in colleges affiliated to it from May 16 onwards, saw 2100 registrations in just two days.
While one of the main reasons for opting Bsc is less craze for engineering, experts cite a dip in results as a key reason for the rush this year.
Dr Himanshu Pandya, Vice-Chancellor, Gujarat University, said: "Due to the dip this year, the Science colleges will be packed for admissions. There is also a high probability of those colleges, in which seats go vacant, get full as there is a dip in results. If the results are high, students opt for engineering courses which have higher cut-offs. This time, engineering courses which are not much preferred would go vacant. The first two days of Bsc admissions also witnessed a huge number of registrations from students. Nearly 2,100 students registered and ...

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Ahmedabad, has busted a racket of smuggling of diesel at Kandla port and seized ship load of highspeed diesel worth Rs 26 crores. Based on a tip-off about the smuggling at per vessel MMT Al Heera, coming from the UAE to Kandla by declaring the item as 'Base Oil SN 50' in the shipping documents, the officials kept a watch at Kandla.
As soon as the vessel entered the oil jetty at Kandla, the DRI officials boarded the vessel and took samples from each of the 10 tanks. The samples were tested at a government laboratory and the test results confirmed that the item contained was highspeed diesel oil. High-Speed Diesel (HSD) is a restricted item which is permitted to be imported only by state trading enterprises. Except for the oil marketing companies which have been granted rights for marketing of transportation fuels, the import is allowed only through Indian Oil Corporation subject to foreign trade policy.
"The full shipload of HSD imported per vessel MMT Al Heera and ...

The state government in May 2017, had announced to make Malaria Free Gujarat by 2022. However, health commissioner Jayanti Ravi believes that the two Urban Local Bodies – Ahmedabad and Surat - municipal corporations are the biggest hurdles as maximum cases of malaria have been reported from here.
Ravi has also raised a concern about Surendranagar district which also has the highest number of cases as compared to the other rural pockets. In a letter to AMC, Ravi said 26% cases of malaria across the state have been reported in civic body limits.
"We are trying our best to support the municipal corporation in tackling malaria. However, it is evident that UHC (Urban Health Centre) are not taking effective steps. Monitoring and supervision by them is also very poor," states the letter written to AMC by the health commissioner.
While talking with a senior state health officer, DNA learned there was declining trend in malaria across the state. "Overall there is a declining trend in malaria since last three ...

The Opposition Congress staged demonstrations across the state on Friday in protest of Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala’s decision to invite the BJP to form the government, saying it was in total violation of democratic traditions.
The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee said that its local units held protests in 33 districts and eight municipal corporations against “democracy’s murder” in Karnataka. In Ahmedabad, the protests were held near Lal Darwaza at 11 am on Friday. A number of MLAs, councillors and other leaders participated in the protests in Ahmedabad.
Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda and Leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani, who are on tour to Tapi district, joined the demonstrations in the south Gujarat district.
In Rajkot, 30 Congress workers and leaders were detained by police for holding protests and chanting slogans outside the residence of Vajubhai Vala. However, no one was present at home at the time of the protests, police said.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said that ...

To check for adulteration of food items across the state, a team of health department officials collected nine samples of food from nine establishments on Friday from the city. The samples were collected from the kitchens of residential hotels and restaurants.
In total, the Food and Drug Control Authority (FDCA) collected 57 samples from restaurants and hotels from eight Urban Local Bodies across the state on Friday.
From Ahmedabad, samples of watermelon juice, paneer tikka masala, mix vegetable, cream of spinach soup, surprise sauce, brown gravy, chilly powder and an ingredient identified as Triple Elephant brand’s preserved dry, salted black bean were taken from Crown Plaza, Hotel Comfort Inn Sunset, The Ummed, Starottel Hotel, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Hyatt Regency, Novotel Hotel and Resort, City Corner Restaurant and The Cubic (in Ashok Plaza).
The samples have been submitted to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s (AMC) own laboratory in Navrangpura to check for adulteration and other aspects, such ...

On Thursday afternoon, the RR Cell of the Ahmedabad Range IG seized more than 900 boxes of Indian made-foreign liquor (IMFL) worth over Rs 33.22 lakh from a gas tanker parked close to a hotel near the Bagodara toll booth.
As per officials, they were tipped off on Thursday that a Bharat Gas tanker had been parked outside a hotel near the Bagodara toll booth for the past two days and that there was IMFL inside it. A team of RR cell reached the spot to investigate.
While checking the tanker, officials found more than 900 boxes of IMFL concealed inside. The police have nabbed one accused and further investigation is on.
AK Jadeja, Range IG of Ahmedabad, said, "The primary accused in the matter has been nabbed. Until now, 900 boxes of liquor have been recovered from the tanker. This is the second incident in the last month, in which IMFL was recovered from a tanker."
Around 20 days ago, IMFL worth Rs 27 lakh had been recovered from an Indian Oil tanker near Bagodara area and the driver was also ...

Eight people were injured in Shahpur Rangilala chowk on Thursday after a part of a two-storey building collapsed. The ceiling of the ground floor of the building collapsed and people got stuck under the rubble. The inhabitants of the building sustained minor injuries in the incident.
As per Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Service (AFES) officials, there were three families living in the building. When the ceiling collapsed, five people fell from the first floor to the ground floor, onto three others down there. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured in the incident.
The AFES reached the spot around 7.45am, but locals had already evacuated five victims, who were attended by 108 emergency services officials. The rest of the victims were rescued by the AFES team.
While one victim, identified as Nadim Shaikh, had to be taken to a private hospital for a leg injury, the rest of the victims were treated at the spot.
Rajesh Bhatt, Additional Chief of AFES, said: "The incident took place owing to lack of ...

Ever imagined your vegetables would be ferried in a waste disposal vehicle before it reaches to you?Well, this has happened in Ahmedabad. In a case of sheer negligence by the Solid Waste Management Department, a vehicle of door-to-door waste collection was found ferrying vegetables. A video of the same went viral on Wednesday.
The civic authority, however, has scrapped the allegations.
Acting swiftly on the controversial matter, the team caught the culprit within four hours and began an inquiry into the same.
"We have nabbed the driver along with the vehicle. A detailed inquiry is underway," said Harshad Solanki, Director of Solid Waste Management, AMC. Solanki informed that they are investigating the matter.
He further said that the vegetables were stale and were dumped in Kalupur market. "Personnel deputed at the refuse transfer station informed that such vegetables are a daily affair. We receive them daily. Even a CCTV footage at the station shows that the vegetables were dumped," said Solanki. He ...